History

Founded in 1988, Artist-Run Centres & Collectives of Ontario (ARCCO) was incorporated in 2000 as a not-for-profit art service organization for artist run centres and collectives throughout Ontario. Since it’s inception, ARCCO has gone from an informal alliance with no funding to an incorporated arts service organization, which was quickly recognized by all levels of government and the national arts community as the official voice of artist-run centres in Ontario.

In 2001, ARCCO held the conference “Convergence: Following a 9-year professional development and networking drought in the artist-run centre community,” (a result due to the demise of the national organization ANNPAC in 1994). This was the first national conference for the artist-run centre community and an important milestone for the organization. Following the success of the conference, ARCCO went on to help establish the new national arts service organization Artist-Run Centres and Collectives Conference/La Conférence des collectifs et des centres d’artistes autogérés (ARCA) in 2004 which continues to host national conferences for the regional arts service organizations.

In 2007, ARCCO along with Ontario Association of Art Galleries (OAAG) initiated advocacy discussions with other provincial arts service organizations and formed the PASO Coalition, with 23 member organizations.